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Congress Begins the FY2009
Budget Process
After Congress and the
White House settled the matter of the $168
billion economic stimulus package with unusual
speed, two weeks ago, the House Appropriations
Committee began holding hearings to discuss the
FY2009 budget.
The House and Senate returned from their
recess last week and are circulating “Dear
Colleague” letters requesting funding for the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
National Science Foundation (NSF) and the
Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Science.
The House and Senate Budget Committees
plan to mark up their resolutions during the
week of March 4th, and the House
plans to bring its budget resolution to the
floor before the Easter recess, which will begin
on March 15th.
The Senate plans to focus on the budget
during the week of March 10th.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Representative Edward
Markey (D-MA) sent a
letter this week to the House Budget
Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-NC) and
Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-WI), urging the
Committee to allocate a sum for NIH that will at
least keep pace with the rate of biomedical
inflation.
Specifically, the
letter requested a minimum of a 3.5 percent
increase of NIH’s budget in FY2009.
Representatives Janice Schakowsky (D-IL),
Christopher Shays (R-CT), Joe Courtney (D-CT),
Chris Smith (R-NJ) and David Reichert (R-WA)
signed the
letter and sent it prior to the Committee’s
Members’ Day Budget hearing on February 28th.
The hearing on February 28th
provided an opportunity for House Members to
testify or submit statements on the FY2009
budget resolution.
Also on February 28th,
the House Energy and Commerce Committee convened
a hearing at which the Secretary of Health and
Human Resources (HHS) Michael Leavitt testified.
Secretary Leavitt also testified at two
separate hearings on February 27th
that the House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and
Human Services, Education and Related Agencies
(Labor-HHS) and the House Budget Committee,
respectively, convened.
The Campaign for Medical
Research, of which FASEB is a member, has been
meeting with Budget Committee staff and
requesting a 6.5% discretionary spending
increase for NIH in the FY2009 budget
resolution.
Representative Markey is also preparing a “Dear
Colleague” letter about NIH to the House
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey
(D-WI) and Ranking Member James Walsh (R-NY).They intend to circulate the letter prior
to the beginning of Easter recess on March 15th. The two week congressional break that
follows will provide NIH supporters with an
opportunity to generate grass roots support for
the letter. On February 14th, the House Labor-HHS
Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing to
examine the social and economic burden of
disease, injuries and disability on society. In his opening remarks at the hearing,
Chairman Obey said that he regards the coming
year as a preparation for a new Administration
and a new Congress. Witnesses at the hearing included Kenneth
Thorpe, Ph.D.,
Professor of Public Health
at Emory
University, James Weinstein, D.O.,
M.S., from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery
at Dartmouth-Hitchcock
Medical Center,
and J. Paul Leigh, Ph.D., Professor of Health
Economics at the University of California.
The witnesses testified in support of
funding for NIH and outlined ways in which a
short term investment in research at NIH
translates into longer-term savings in health
care.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Representatives Vern Ehlers
(R-MI), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Bob Inglis (R-SC) and
Brian Baird (D-WA) have sponsored a “Dear
Colleague” letter that they began circulating in
the House this week, requesting the America
COMPETES Act authorization level of $7.326
billion for NSF in the FY2009 budget in the
House.
The text of the House “Dear Colleague”
for NSF is available
here.
Senators Joe Lieberman
(ID-CT) and Chris Bond (R-MO) have sent a
similar “Dear Colleague” to the Senate Commerce,
Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee
Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Ranking Member
Richard Shelby (R-AL) in support of funding for
NSF in the FY2009 budget.
The Senate’s “Dear Colleague” differs
from the House’s, however, inasmuch as it is
consistent with the Administration’s FY2009
budget request for NSF of $6.85 billion rather
than with the America COMPETES Act number, which
is $472 million more than the President’s
proposal.
The text of the Senate “Dear Colleague”
for NSF is available
here.
Additionally, Senator Lamar
Alexander (R-TN) has also circulated a “Dear
Colleague” letter to the Senate Budget Committee
Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Ranking Member
Judd Gregg (R-NH) that requests an increase of
at least $1.566 billion for America COMPETES Act
programs at NSF and DOE in FY2009.
The text of the Senate “Dear Colleague”
for the America COMPETES Act is available
here.
On February 14th,
the House Science Committee held a hearing to
examine funding for the America COMPETES Act in
the President’s FY2009 budget request, where Dr.
John Marburger, the Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy, testified.
Earlier this week, on
February 26th, the House Science
Committee’s Subcommittee on Research and Science
Education held a hearing to discuss the
oversight of NSF.
Dr. Arden Bement, the Director of NSF,
and Dr. Steven Beering, the Chairman of the
National Science Board, testified.
Then, the following day, on February 27th,
the House Commerce, Justice and Science
Appropriations Subcommittee also convened a
hearing to explore funding for NSF in the FY2009
budget; Dr. Bement testified at that hearing as
well.
Department of Energy (DOE)
Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and
Lamar Alexander (R-TN) are circulating a “Dear
Colleague” to the Chair and Ranking Member of
the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations
Subcommittee in support of the President’s
FY2009 budget request of $4.7 billion for DOE’s
Office of Science.
So far, Senators Elizabeth Dole (R-NC),
Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Richard Durbin (D-IL),
Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Barack Obama (D-IL)
and John Warner (R-VA) have agreed to sign onto
the letter.
In the past, as many as 70 Senators have
signed onto the Senate DOE “Dear Colleague.”
The text of the Senate “Dear Colleague”
for DOE is available
here.
On February 28th,
the House Energy and Water Appropriations
Subcommittee convened a hearing on the budget
for DOE at which Samuel Bodman, the Secretary of
Energy, testified.
On March 5th,
the House Science and Technology Committee’s
Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is
planning a hearing to examine DOE’s FY2009
budget request.
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
On February 13th, the
House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee
convened a hearing on the FY2009 appropriations
the President proposed for the USDA.
Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer
testified.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
On February 14th, the
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military
Construction and Veterans Affairs held a hearing
to examine the budget for the VA.
James Peake, the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs, testified.
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The House Updates Its Legislative Calendar for the Year
Earlier this month, the
House of Representatives updated its legislative
calendar when it moved up the beginning of its
August recess.
The new plan calls for the House to
adjourn on August 1st for a five-week
summer recess that will include the Democratic
and Republican presidential nominating
conventions.
The prior legislative calendar the House
had announced had called for the August recess
to begin a week later.
The new calendar that House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) posted on his
Web site shows that to make up for the longer
August recess, the House will be in session five
days a week for three weeks starting on
September 8th.
Congress plans to take three more
recesses between now and the long summer break
in August.
The House’s target
adjournment date is September 26th,
but Congress is unlikely to finish its business
by that date.
Congress hasn’t managed to avoid a
“lame-duck” session during an election year
since 1996.
Congress plans to be in recess during the
following dates:
March 17th – 28th
House and Senate Easter Recess
May 26th – 30th
House and Senate Memorial Day
Recess
June 30th –
July 4th
House and Senate Fourth of July
Recess
August 4th –
September 5th
House August Recess
August 11th –
September 5th
Senate August Recess
Additional dates to note this year are:
August 25th –
28th
Democratic Convention
September 1st
– 4th
Republican Convention
September 26th
House Target Adjournment
Date
October 1st
Start of the New Fiscal Year
November 4th
Election Day
Complete schedule
information is available on the
FASEB Advocacy and
Capitol Hill Page.
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INSIDE (The Beltway) SCOOP – Gretchen Opper
“We are good at describing the cost of doing something but not good at
describing the cost of doing nothing.”
- House Appropriations Committee
Chairman David Obey (D-WI)
Congress tailored the recent economic stimulus
package narrowly enough that there wasn’t much
hope for the inclusion of additional science
funds to help compensate for the FY2008 omnibus
shortfall in it.
Last night, the Senate Democrats tried
and failed to pass a “second” stimulus bill, S.
2636, that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
introduced and had put together to provide
housing relief.
Although the House now plans to draft its
own “second” housing stimulus bill, we again
despair of including supplemental funds for
science therein.
This is because the “second” stimulus,
with a focus on housing finance and energy
incentives, will be as narrowly-tailored as the
tax-relief stimulus bill Congress already passed
was and because the legislation faces such
strong opposition from Republicans, there is
little expectation it will pass.
Another possible and
somewhat more likely vehicle for additional
science funding in FY2008 is the $102 billion
war supplemental that Representative Jack Murtha
(D-PA), the Chairman of the House Appropriations
Defense Subcommittee, is planning to mark up by
mid-March or early April.
Various Members of Congress, such as
Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Lamar Alexander
(R-TN) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and
Representatives Judy Biggert (R-IL), Chris Van
Hollen (D-MD) and Timothy Walz (D-MN), have said
they’re willing to push for additional science
funding in the supplemental.
The trouble with getting
science funding into the supplemental,
generally, is that the Administration and
Congress are reluctant to open the war
supplemental to any sort of domestic spending.
Congress would prefer that the
Administration make the initial request to
include non-military spending in the bill; this
is because no one wants a repeat of last year,
with the President vetoing bills and
embarrassing Congress.
Even if the war supplemental includes
domestic spending, there may only be room for a
top two or three priorities in the bill.
Amazingly, science funding has a chance
of making the cut.
This is thanks in large
part to the ITER debacle.
ITER is a joint international research
and development project that DOE funds with the
aim of demonstrating the scientific and
technical feasibility of fusion power.
Partners in the project include the
European Union, Japan, China,
India, Korea, Russia
and the
U.S.; the
construction site is in the South of France.
In his FY2008 budget request, the
President requested $160 million for ITER in
satisfaction of our international agreement;
Congress, however, appropriated $0 for ITER in
its FY2008 omnibus.
In accordance with the
contract and notwithstanding the difficulty in
enforcing international treaties, if the U.S.
defaults on its partnership, it will owe a
financial penalty in the neighborhood of $750
million. Evidently, in a phone call with
President Bush a couple of weeks ago, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy took the U.S. to task
for failing to uphold its end of the ITER
bargain, and DOE has received letters from
other nations questioning the reliability of the
U.S.
as an international partner. The Administration has unofficially
suggested it’s willing to request the additional
funds for ITER in the war supplemental though it
hasn’t made an official statement to that effect
yet.
Supplemental funds for ITER would open the door
for more supplemental money for DOE to assist
Argonne National Laboratory and the Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory, both of which
have reduced their operations and lay off
employees as a result of the FY2008 omnibus.
FASEB has signed letters
that the Energy Sciences Coalition and the Task
Force on the Future of American Innovation have
sent to the President and congressional leaders
requesting $300 million for DOE and $200 million
for NSF in the war supplemental in the spring.
On another note, there is
some movement in Congress toward adopting a
biennial budgeting process.
Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) is leading
the charge to extend the annual appropriations
process into an every-other, non-election year
event and wants Congress to implement his
proposal before his retirement at the end of the
session.
At a news conference earlier this month,
Senator Domenici complained that Congress is
always busy budgeting and appropriating and that
“there’s no time for anything else.”
Domenici used a chart to demonstrate that
the appropriations process tends to drag out no
matter which party is in the White House or
controls Congress.
Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who sits on the
Appropriations Committee, said he is confident
the measure has substantial support, but a
spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
said he doubted the Senate would bring the
measure to the floor anytime soon.
By way of historical context, Congress has toyed
off and on with the idea of a biennial budget
process since Leon Panetta, the former White
House Chief of Staff under President Clinton,
introduced the first biennial budgeting bill as
a
California
congressman back in 1977.
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